The danger is that the phishing scammers have perfectly forged the university’s SINGLE SIGN-ON page, that is used by students an personnel to access the portal pages, the my.sun.ac.za page, SUNLearn etc., as you can see below. Not many people will notice that the address is not a university address, neither is it secure.

It is imperative that you do not click on the link in the mail, and do not provide the scammers with your username and password as they might be able to access the university’s systems that are accessible through the Single Sign-On page.

Last year scammers were able to forge the e-HR login page through a phishing scam and several staff members had their bank accounts details and other personal details exposed to the scammers. In the light of the issues that Tygerberg staff have been having with general network access earlier this month, and this week’s issue with e-mail, the arrival of this sort of mail at this time can fool some people into thinking that it is legitimate and lead to compromised network and e-mail accounts.

Attach the phishing or suspicious mail on to the message if possible.
1. Start up a new mail addressed to sysadm@sun.ac.za (CC: help@sun.ac.za)
2. Use the Title “SPAM” (without quotes) in the Subject.
3. With this New Mail window open, drag the suspicious spam/phishing mail from your Inbox into the New Mail Window. It will attach the mail as an enclosure and a small icon with a light yellow envelope will appear in the attachments section of the New Mail.
4. Send the mail.

Attach the phishing or suspicious mail on to the message if possible.
1. Start up a new mail addressed to sysadm@sun.ac.za (CC: help@sun.ac.za)
2. Use the Title “SPAM” (without quotes) in the Subject.
3. With this New Mail window open, drag the suspicious spam/phishing mail from your Inbox into the New Mail Window. It will attach the mail as an enclosure and a small icon with a light yellow envelope will appear in the attachments section of the New Mail.
4. Send the mail.

Several observant colleagues and some students have reported a number of phishing emails being sent (usually in pairs) from a university account in the United Kingdom. The subject is “IT ADMIN” with no salutation or any other information other than “You have a pending message click here to read”.

With some students still on their autumn break and many colleagues only returning this week from the short school holiday, mailboxes have filled up full, voicemails and Skype 4 Business voice messages might have been left and some might be fooled into thinking that a message from “IT ADMIN” *might* be important.

This is a common tactic used by phishing scammers to attempt to con their victims into giving their usernames and passwords.

Many phishing emails use short and cryptic messages to instil a sense of urgency to scare users into doing the attackers’ bidding. In this case, a short mail about a mysterious “pending message” requires the victims to click on a link in order to retrieve the message. In actuality, the link leads to a fake login page designed to collect the user’s login credentials and deliver them to the attackers.

You should always inspect all URLs carefully to see if they redirect to an unknown website – this scam links to weebly.com. Also look out for generic salutations, grammar mistakes, and spelling errors scattered throughout the email. There are several in this mail.

It is no coincidence that a compromised UK university email address has been used. Large institutions like universities, with large numbers of students and personnel, are always a challenge to protect and are choice targets for phishing attacks.

In the same way, some Stellenbosch University students and personnel are fooled by the scam and give the scammers their passwords and login details by filling them in on the fake login page. The original email account is discarded by the scammers and compromised Stellenbosch University accounts might be used. This has happened several times before.

So, do not be surprised if later this week there is a fresh breakout of these “pending message” mails from “IT ADMIN” but this time coming from Stellenbosch University student or personnel accounts. It is very important to report this to the IT Cyber Security team.

Attach the phishing or suspicious mail on to the message if possible.
1. Start up a new mail addressed to sysadm@sun.ac.za (CC: help@sun.ac.za)
2. Use the Title “SPAM” (without quotes) in the Subject.
3. With this New Mail window open, drag the suspicious spam/phishing mail from your Inbox into the New Mail Window. It will attach the mail as an enclosure and a small icon with a light yellow envelope will appear in the attachments section of the New Mail.
4. Send the mail.

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cryptocurrency.website address

This is a sneaky attempt to defraud users seeking an opportunity to invest in Bitcoins (crypto-currency). The website you are taken to is filled with fake testimonials, inflated bank account numbers, exaggerated claims of easy money and various other lies and fabrications. The software that you would be asked to install is fake and will compromise security on your computer and be used to send spam. Furthermore, victims will have to pay anything up to $250 to join the “investment” scheme and the only thing that will happen is that you will be $250 poorer. Here is an example of the website page:

Do not respond to this mail or be tempted to join this scheme. The fact that university e-mail addresses reused and the claims look legitimate should rather be a warning.

As always if you have received mail that looks like this, please immediately report it to the Information Technology Security Team using the following method:

Send the spam/phishing mail to help@sun.ac.za and sysadm@sun.ac.za.
Attach the phishing or suspicious mail on to the message if possible.
1. Start up a new mail addressed to sysadm@sun.ac.za (CC: help@sun.ac.za)
2. Use the Title “SPAM” (without quotes) in the Subject.
3. With this New Mail window open, drag the suspicious spam/phishing mail from your Inbox into the New Mail Window. It will attach the mail as an enclosure and a small icon with a light yellow envelope will appear in the attachments section of the New Mail.
4. Send the mail.

With this New Mail window open, drag the suspicious spam/phishing mail from your Inbox into the New Mail Window. It will attach the mail as an enclosure and a small icon with a light yellow envelope will appear in the attachments section of the New Mail.

Send the mail.

IF YOU HAVE FALLEN FOR THE SCAM:

If you did click on the link of this phishing spam and unwittingly give the scammers your username, e-mail address and password you should immediately go to http://www.sun.ac.za/useradm and change the passwords on ALL your university accounts (making sure the new password is completely different, and is a strong password that will not be easily guessed.) as well as changing the passwords on your social media and private e-mail accounts (especially if you use the same passwords on these accounts.)